|
DF3CB on Six Meters |
| Since I can work only few new DXCC
band countries on the nine HF bands, I had to keep my interest
alive and set new goals. My radio neighbor Thomas, DL7AV, got me interested
in 6 meters, since he devoted most of his radio career to that magic
band. As the current sunspot cycle 23 was still on the incline and
after putting a 6 meter 5 element M² yagi on top of my highest
tower and purchasing an ICOM IC-706, I started my 6m activity in October
1998. |
 |
| Six meters reminds me very often of 160m, a challenge
of its own because propagation is not at all or hardly predictable
and you "have to be there" at the right time. Openings last
usually only a few minutes, sometimes only 30 seconds. The band is
often called the Magic Band but it is most of the time the Tragic
Band, when you live in latitudes with rare good openings and when
others, just a hundred kilometers away, work DX and you hear nothing
at all because propagation can be so extremely selective. But there are
always unexpected surprises which compensate the frustration of an
empty band with no signals for long periods of times. |
| |
Antennas |
| I've been using a 5 element M² yagi on top of my highest
tower from 1998 until 2007 with great results. However, escpecially in years of low suspot activity, every dB counts and we took it down: |
 |
| The 5 element M² had a 5 meter boom and I wanted to try out a 10 meter boom yagi: |
 |
| On July 7, 2007 we
installed a new 6m yagi, a 7 element I0JXX design antenna on a
10m boom. First QSO was 1A0KM on July 13 as DXCC entity #172. |
| I was however never happy with the quality and performance of this antenna and installed a M² 6M8GJ, a 8 element on a 13m/42’ 8“ boom in June 2011. It is mounted above the Force 12 interlaced 3 element 40m and 6 element 20m yagi. |
 |
| This is finally a very, very good antenna. Click here to see more pictures of the assembly and installation. |
| |
DXCC |
| I set my goal to achieve DXCC on 6m. In late October
2000, after a very good DX season, I had worked 26 WAZ zones and
reached my 100th DXCC entity after
a QSO with Nodir, EY8MM. Nodir visited us
in August 2005. |
 |
| The winter 2001/2002 season brought another bunch
of incredible openings to Asia, Central and North America which increased
my country total to 136 DXCC entities and 32 zones. |
| I've worked almost 200 of the current DXCC entities. See my 6m QSL Collection and the table on the right. Two of the most remarkable openings were on March
29, 2002, when we were able to work KH7R, K6MIO/KH6 and NH7RO long path in a 40-minute opening and on July 8, 2003 VE7SL. |
| You have to be there at the right time but in
real life you can't. So I missed at least 15 DXCC entities and quite
a few of them by just a few minutes, for example VQ9, 8Q7, V73AT and
others. |
| |
WAZ |
| I've reached 35 WAZ Zones. |
 |
 |
| I am operating CW (and some SSB, but no EME) on Six Meters and it's rather difficult to
work the other five Zones. I
missed zone 12. NL7Z from zone 1 was audible in our region in
June 2006. We had propagation to ZL (zone 32) on Feb 3, 2002 SP coming
as close as S5, 9A and I1 but the signals didn't make it over the mountains. |
| |
Grids and States |
| I do not collect grid squares but the following
map shows what I have achieved in the past years (it does not show what I have missed...): |
 |
| Fields worked from JN58TE (my grid locator) |
 |
| US states worked. It's
difficult to work zone 3 and the western U.S. from here. |
|
|
|
| 1 |
DL |
| 2 |
TZ |
| 3 |
9G |
| 4 |
EA |
| 5 |
ZS |
| 6 |
C5 |
| 7 |
CT |
| 8 |
G |
| 9 |
OH |
| 10 |
SM |
|
| 11 |
OE |
| 12 |
OK,OL |
| 13 |
F |
| 14 |
5H |
| 15 |
7Q |
| 16 |
ES |
| 17 |
EU |
| 18 |
S5 |
| 19 |
UA |
| 20 |
EA9 |
| 21 |
9H |
| 22 |
I |
| 23 |
5A |
| 24 |
V5 |
| 25 |
LZ |
| 26 |
5B |
| 27 |
ER |
| 28 |
LA |
| 29 |
SV |
| 30 |
EI |
| 31 |
LY |
| 32 |
OY |
| 33 |
K |
| 34 |
VE |
| 35 |
4X |
| 36 |
GI |
| 37 |
KP2 |
| 38 |
KP3,4 |
| 39 |
SP |
| 40 |
9J |
| 41 |
OM |
| 42 |
UR |
| 43 |
3C |
| 44 |
5X |
| 45 |
TR |
| 46 |
GD |
| 47 |
HB |
| 48 |
UN |
|
| 49 |
Z2 |
| 50 |
LU |
| 51 |
PY |
| 52 |
YO |
| 53 |
CT3 |
| 54 |
GM |
| 55 |
OD |
| 56 |
ZA |
| 57 |
SV9 |
| 58 |
Z3 |
| 59 |
GW |
| 60 |
ON |
| 61 |
PA |
| 62 |
CN |
| 63 |
ZC4 |
| 64 |
ZD7 |
| 65 |
9A |
| 66 |
EA6 |
| 67 |
FH |
| 68 |
JY |
| 69 |
3A |
| 70 |
4L |
| 71 |
JW |
| 72 |
OH0 |
| 73 |
OZ |
| 74 |
YL |
| 75 |
HB0 |
| 76 |
5V |
| 77 |
XT |
| 78 |
J2 |
| 79 |
FR |
| 80 |
VR |
| 81 |
E3 |
| 82 |
ET |
| 83 |
ST |
| 84 |
DU |
| 85 |
VK |
| 86 |
XU |
| 87 |
FY |
| 88 |
A4 |
| 89 |
CU |
| 90 |
E7 |
| 91 |
9M6 |
| 92 |
BY |
| 93 |
EY |
| 94 |
9M2 |
| 95 |
ZD8 |
| 96 |
3V |
|
| 97 |
D6 |
| 98 |
SU |
| 99 |
TT |
| 100 |
EK |
| 101 |
FG |
| 102 |
ZB2 |
| 103 |
OJ0 |
| 104 |
GU |
| 105 |
SV5 |
| 106 |
5R |
| 107 |
HZ |
| 108 |
TA |
| 109 |
IS0 |
| 110 |
GJ |
| 111 |
3DA |
| 112 |
C9 |
| 113 |
JA |
| 114 |
EA8 |
| 115 |
D4 |
| 116 |
HP |
| 117 |
UK |
| 118 |
VU |
| 119 |
YV |
| 120 |
XW |
| 121 |
YB |
| 122 |
HC8 |
| 123 |
TG |
| 124 |
XE |
| 125 |
6Y |
| 126 |
P4 |
| del. |
PJ2,4,9 |
|
| 127 |
6W |
| 128 |
8P |
| 129 |
9Y |
| 130 |
FM |
| 131 |
JT |
| 132 |
YU |
| 133 |
EX |
| 134 |
LX |
| 135 |
3W, XV |
| 136 |
5N |
| 137 |
7P |
| 138 |
KH6 |
| 139 |
D2 |
| 140 |
JX |
| 141 |
FS |
| 142 |
YI |
| 143 |
3X |
| 144 |
PY0F |
| 145 |
9L |
|
| 146 |
4U1ITU |
| 147 |
T7 |
| 148 |
A6 |
| 149 |
TF |
| 150 |
C6 |
| 151 |
YA |
| 152 |
S0 |
| 153 |
5T |
| 154 |
A7 |
|
| 155 |
7X |
| 156 |
SV/A |
| 157 |
J7 |
|
| 158 |
HA |
|
| 159 |
HI |
| 160 |
C3 |
| 161 |
V4 |
| 162 |
VP2V |
| 163 |
VP5 |
| 164 |
CO |
| 165 |
4O |
|
| 166 |
HV |
| 167 |
V2 |
| 168 |
VP2E |
| del. |
PJ5-8 |
| 169 |
J8 |
| 170 |
1A |
|
| 171 |
CY0 |
| 172 |
ZF |
| 173 |
FJ |
|
| 174 |
TN |
| 175 |
OA |
| 176 |
TL |
| 177 |
4J, 4K |
| 178 |
8R |
| 179 |
J3 |
| 180 |
VP9 |
|
| 181 |
A9 |
| 182 |
9K |
| 183 |
E4 |
| 184 |
PZ |
|
| 185 |
TJ |
| 186 |
PJ2 |
| 187 |
PJ4 |
| 188 |
OX |
| 189 |
PJ7 |
| 190 |
PJ5,6 |
| 191 |
Z8 |
| 192 |
TY |
| 193 |
TU |
| 194 |
EL |
|
| 195 |
6O,T5 |
|
